Who Am I?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
When I started this blog, I was living in Houston. Now my family and I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My blog is to serve many purposes. One to tell everyone what is going on with us in the way only I can tell. Another is for me to vent out my feelings. In other words, this is just my humble view of my world.

October 05, 2010

House Hunting...the Finale!

As stated in the first episode of our house hunting experience, we had looked at 3 different places and narrowed it down to two, Serene Kiara and Duta Tropika. We decided on the place at Serene Kiara and put in the offer letter. After two weeks of back and forth negotiations, we finally had to start looking again since it seemed we were at an impasse with the owners. David and I are very hard-headed people, which is both a blessing and a curse. We really wanted to stick with Serene since it had the biggest space and the new homes with a view. We told our agent to find us a new place out there and went that day to look again. Thankfully we found another place there that did not have the view we wanted but the layout seem to fit us equally as well, so again, another offer letter. We were told this owner was much more accommodating and would have no problems with the requests. The only thing we really had issues with was the timing. This place would not be ready until November 8th. After checking to see that our temporary housing could be continued through that date, we proceeded with the process. After two days of no word, we called our agent again to find out the status. This is when things really began to fall apart. The owner had left the country and would not sign the offer or begin construction until she returned at the end of October (further pushing back the move in date). Up to this point, we had been told it was just a matter of formality and the owner had already agreed to everything. Apparently, this was not true and our second attempt to rent a place to live here in KL fell through. This all happened at the end of our 4th week, meaning I am stir crazy and itching for a fight. They don’t call me a crazy American woman for nothing! We called our agent back again and told her to find something for us to look at back in Duta Tropika again. There had been a unit available when we first began our searches, #77, and we asked if that one was still available. She took us to see them right away and we found that it was still available. Now when I say she took us to see them, I mean this…she took us to see #77 which we asked about and then another unit we had seen in the beginning that we said absolutely no! too. By this point, I am so frustrated with our agent and sick of feeling like we are being jerked around by this woman who seems to be lazy and also seems to lie if it makes her look good. We decided since there was nothing else in Tropika that was available at our price (so said our agent), we would put in our 3rd offer letter. Third time’s a charm, right?? WRONG! I had a bad feeling about this and finally decided to do something. I went back to the website they had given us to look at before we came over and I look at Tropika specifically. I found at least half dozen listings for places that were within our price range. After sorting through the ones I knew we had looked at from the pictures, I found a listing that looked promising and the agent had a website. I checked out her website and sent her a message via email to inquire about the unit. She promptly responded within 15 minutes saying she had a few units there that might work with our budget. She asked some questions about what things I was looking for and asked when I wanted to view them. I had a playdate the next day in Tropika, so I asked if that would work…it did and we met. I got to see three different units than I had seen previously and one that really caught my eye. It was right across from the pool and playground, very convenient for my kids. The space inside was the biggest we had seen in this area within our price range and it had all the things we had been asking for in our offer letters. The down side?? It has no yard, meaning no place for us to put our outdoor table (the new one) to use for dinner outside and it is a link style which means they are bigger but they have even less yard than the other units. Personally, I can live with all of these issues. But David was apprehensive and this has to be a family decision. So this new agent took me to another neighborhood to look at it. I think it would have been nice if we didn’t have kids, but it was just far too sterile for me. The whole time this new agent took me around, I had already told her we had this other agent we had to use through my husband’s company and she said we didn’t have to but she understood. Later that afternoon, I emailed our agent and told her about #72 and asked if she could arrange a viewing so David could see it too…this was a Friday afternoon. She responded with one sentence…”did you see this place with another agent?” I responded honestly and said yes, told her how I found this other agent and gave her the details. I never heard back from her about the place, she did, however, text David later that evening. She told him #72 had an offer on it for an amount above our price and then told us the owners from the other place had accepted our offer and asked what we wanted to do. I decided I would contact the new agent and ask her about this offer, she double checked and said no offer was on it and told us we could see it the next morning if we wanted. David asked our agent again if she was sure this other place was taken and then asked to see a copy of our offer letter. She told him yes on both accounts and said she would email him the letter…we still have never seen that letter. After seeing it on Saturday, he decided that we could go with it and the new agent went about contacting the owner for us to see if we could have the place at our price. She was great! She called or text me every couple hours to let me know what was happening…the owner was not answering the phone due to being on an airplane. At 8pm, she called me to tell me it was a deal! Since our other agent had completely flaked on us, we decided to see if the company would let us just use this new agent alone and not go through the other one. David sent an email to those in charge, meanwhile, the new agent sent us a copy of the offer letter for us to review before having the owner sign it. By Monday morning, the owner had signed it and the new agent (Lisee) was working with David’s company to finalize all the paperwork.  It took 4 offer letters and nearly 5 weeks, but we have a place to live!We get to take possession October 15th and our container is being delivered October 16th. This place is one of the best places we looked at and has the neighborhood we had wanted in the very beginning. God has blessed us yet again with a place we didn’t even know we could have or would want. Many prayers went into finding this place. I am not a patient person (shocker!) and God really taught me a lesson with this hunting experience. But He also helped me to understand that not having everything exactly the way I want it or envision it is ok. He allowed me to take some control of the situation but taught me to do so in a more tactful way than I would have in the past. I did it honestly and upfront. We told our original agent all about the place we liked, that we viewed it with another agent and told her how to contact that agent to help us make the deal. I could have been vindictive, which if I am honest, I really wanted to and would have in the past. But God helped me change, even if it is just a little and even though I have to ask His help every step of the way. Hey, I am by no means perfect but I have a God who is! He continues to bless this family of mine everyday!